Don’t be surprised if House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is spotted strolling the corridors of the nation’s Capitol whistling the old Rolling Stones song “Time Is On My Side.’’

Despite the failure of his fiscal cliff proposal, known as Plan B, to generate sufficient Republican votes to win passage and his inability to stop the House and Senate from raising income tax rates on those earning more than $450,000 per year, it appears the Ohio Republican will likely retain the speaker’s position in Thursday’s lower chamber vote.

“I don’t think anyone will challenge the speaker tomorrow,’’ said one Hill GOP staffer close to the situation.

With only a few hours to go before the House leadership election, no one has stepped forward to issue a challenge despite audible grumbling from the party’s conservative wing. And while Boehner has his detractors in the House, most of the criticism is coming from outside groups like American Majority, a conservative organization that helps train like-minded potential candidates.

“The world might not have ended today but Speaker Boehner’s power is at an end,’’ said Ron Meyer, a spokesman for the group. “It’s time to make room for fresh leadership and a new approach to governing.’’

But even Boehner’s most severe critics acknowledge that his return to the speaker’s chair is almost assured, given that so little time exists for anyone to mount a serious challenge. Two often-cited potential competitors, House Republican Leader Eric Cantor, of Virginia, and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Budget Committee and last year’s party vice presidential candidate, are not waging visible campaigns.

Boehner over the past several days has expressed optimism over retaining his position.

“No, I’m not,’’ when asked at a recent press conference if he is concerned about his leadership status. “Listen, you have all heard me say this, and I have told my colleagues this — if you do the right things every day for the right reasons, the right things will happen.’’

47 Comments, 20 Threads

The only way Boehner can redeem himself, at this point, is to hold a hard line against raising the debt limit.
Let the Dems pass any legislation they want to spend like the drunken sailors they are. But, don’t give them any means to acquire any more money or credit to do it with.
There’s more than one way to skin a cat.

I agree; He’s a definite weenie, John. He acts as if he’s as immune to censure as Obama is.
Yet, there is enough time to get the calls, emails, and letters to Our Representatives in the House, and Senate, to refuse any move on raising the debt ceiling they are counting on.
This is a perfect time to pull the rug out from under the Senate and Obama.
I’d like to see them shut the government down for a significant period of time; They want a crisis? Give them a REAL crisis.
We THE People will adapt. Just watch who panics first. You can bet it’ll be Congress. And maybe Obama will be inconvenienced by having to return from Martha’s Vineyard on a chartered plane since Air Force One can’t pay the ground crew.
If We don’t show them that We CAN adapt without them, and maintain Our independence, what other method of getting their attention do you suggest?

The important thing to keep in mind is that EVERY time the GOP came to the point of pulling the trigger be it the debt ceiling or something else, they punted. And every time they turned down a deal, they’ve ended up with less in the end. So hostage-taking HASN’T benefitted them because there’s no ransom that will make them happy.

Seems to me that their goal is not to achieve anything like happiness. More like crapping in the nest. Just crap all over the country for another four years and hope it makes Obama look bad. That’s why their goalposts move so easily. They’re not really goals. They don’t really care about their positions, it’s just contrarianism. I don’t remember the deficit being so important when W was in charge. It was WMD’s in those days. Any bogeyman will do. Right now it’s the fecal cliff. They get re-elected by stoking outrage in their constituents (the message board on PJ Media is evidence of that). They don’t truly care about economics, they just hate hippies, blacks, women, liberals, gays, socialists, immigrants, etc. They don’t want their taxes to go to any of those, even though the reality is red states are among the poorest. So any hostage will do.

Clinically Worthless;
We here know that when you get bored of crapping in your nest, you start flinging crap like a monkey on an energy drink.
Hindsight is 20/20; In your case 19/12.
Don’t bore me, or anyone else. with your 19/12. The sun’s coming up; I’ve got some work to do.
But, I don’t think you’ll ever understand what that means.

You do realize that an increase in the debt ceiling gives the treasury authority to pay for things Congress has already voted for, right? It isn’t new spending as your comment seems to imply. Not increasing the limit is akin to eating at a restaurant and skipping out on the bill.

You guys are itching for a fight that you can win because you have lost so many. The thing is that frame of mind just sets you up for more losses.

Boohooner did get back in as speaker, and don’t expect any real spending cuts – at least not until there is a complete financial collapse and nobody will lend us money at an interest rate that we can meet.

I thought the American people got a reasonably good deal. The tax cuts expired, so essentially every single person got a tax cut up to $400k income. The married couples over $450k income probably will be a little disgruntled though.

The deficits, of course, are another matter and we will continue to pay the price for them.

It’s going up 2%, back to where it was. The payroll tax cut was never permanent. It was going to go back to 6.2% eventually. I understand you probably don’t like the idea of Social Security to begin with but we’re not talking a lot of money here.

As I understood the temporary payroll tax cut of 2%, it meant that each individual was putting less into his personal Social Security account. This means that when they go to retire and the Social Security Administration computes their monthly payment, their pot will be smaller than expected because of those two years or more when they were paying in less to their “pot”. Thus they will have a smaller monthly payment. I also think most working Americans don’t realize that fact.

Hey, not so fast. It’s only just beginning. Those who still believe that the future of the republic hinges on the foibles of Boehner, Cantor and the front benches of the GOP are in dire need of a reality check. Time to pull back and take a peek away from the muddy trenches. Is it really all that complex? Despite the interminable wailing and breast-beating — ululating Republicans, heaven help us — there is a clear path forward.

In the harsh but real world of merchant banks and snooty law firms, far from the Hollywood sets and striped-shirt-and-suspenders drama of a Michael Douglas Wall St. movie, they call it scorched-earth defense. The effect is civil blitzkrieg under another name, (usually) without military hardware. Simultaneous coordinated attacks from different directions are launched to overwhelm the opposition. Subtle it ain’t, at least in outcome: only the good guy remains standing. If you win, you’re the good guy.

To fix today’s mess there are now four clear lines of attack, each with capable advocates: 1/ tax revolt; 2/ a new third party; 3/ secession; 4/ civil war. If we have learned anything at all from our past, civil war must remain the last resort, an admission of defeat and failure, a mix of broken-arrow and My-Lai, to be pursued only in extremis after all else has failed.

Key is the leadership, organization and preparation to coordinate 1 thru 3 — ideally, all launch simultaneously and suddenly. Perhaps paradoxically, the participation of tea party groups (those with a secular orientation, not dominated by whack-a-doodle God-botherers) is critical. The tea-parties’ local orientation and lack of national organization is an enduring strength, their liaison needed to keep everyone else honest. The best in the tea parties are both today’s minutemen and the first four hundred names in the proverbial phone book.

Where to find leadership with the ability to develop the organizational structure to implement 1 thru 3? Well, it can come from anywhere. Not (quite) all of today’s crop of politicians are useless; you can still find men and women of principle on the political stage; many but by no means all are (increasingly restive) Republicans — that is one obvious source. Character, courage, ambition and verbal skills are needed in equal measure. Decent leaders surely also exist in the military, law enforcement, tea parties and — though the risk is great since no Fredericks, Luthers or Wesleys now move among us — the churches and synagogues. The best and brightest are surely still unknown, honest and deeply decent toilers among the ranks of the butchers, bakers, tinkers, tailors, brewers, plumbers — and the rest.

Make no mistake, a brutal struggle lies ahead. The unproductive brahmins now guzzling at the public trough will not yield their perks and privileges easily or willingly. Many now believe in their own greatness and must be forced out; MSM and the academy especially, craven beyond redemption, are a rich source of future cannon fodder. The goal of the good guys is to minimize violence, not avoid it.

How to pay for all this? Figure it out yourself, the money is there.
How high are the stakes? Failure means the catastrophe of civil war and the end of the republic. If managed right, popular support will be massive. If not, well, change happens at the margin; you don’t need a majority. Put mildly, even the dullest country-club drone will see the need for taxpayer lèse majesté — if only to ruffle the Secret Service on its way to the brothel. Fortunately, many of your fellow citizens are made of sterner stuff, enough to control the outcome, but they will not thank those who stay at home.

The secret simply will no longer keep
For America is losing sleep
It’s time to break the spell
Who is Allen West and what is he up to, do tell?

Rumor has it he’s a cannoneer
He’s a dashing buccaneer
I hear he’s handy with the quips
He’s the annihilator of Alinsky statist creeps with information on their lying at his fingertips

They say he’s nearly seven feet tall
And yet quite graceful… … all in all
I’m told there are lightning bolts when he walks
And thunder when he talks!

He’s been many times seen
Wearing DCU and then full OD green
I hear he’s steely as you please
He could be Samurai Japanese

He may be shrewd
He may be rude
Ah well, it’s hard to tell
Who is this Allen West, do tell?

The Alinsky statists may think he comes from Hell
But he may come from somewhere just around the dell
But he will be here and he will be there
You could see him giving the Alinsky statists hell most any time and most anywhere

He meddles with the Alinsky statist devolution
Stomping them mightily throughout each week
Spoiling every Alinsky statists lying elocution
La, what cheek!

Sh$#t can Boehner. He’s as feckless as the Dems are dangerous, and that is a bad combination.

You don’t have to be a House member to be Speaker. I nominate Scott Walker or Mitch Daniels. They have both been highly effective at destroying Demtard foundational constituencies that are bankrupting their states. Walker is the most substantive Republican leader in the last 15 years. To quote a famous Gunny “He’s got guts, and sometimes guts is enough!” Most House Repubs have no guts at all.

Both have an inperturbable demeanor that would drive the Marxist scum off the deep end. Maureen Dowd would have breach born kittens sideways with their claws out.

Boehner is useless it’s to bad cant get rid of McConnel while we are at it. Maybe be with a little luck the Iranians will develop a neutron bomb and use it on DC, keep the buildings loose the politicians, lobbyists and career bureaucrats.

“The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.” Ayn Rand

After yesterday, I am very pessimistic about the GOP ability to withstand the pressure on a new gun control law. It looks to me that Obama and his gang will use the moment and hit hard on this one. I really don’t see how the Republicans can stand up and not let the new law on guns passed.

Since the modern Democratic party is closer in values and policies to the old Republican party than to the current GOP, the rational, as well as patriotic thing for moderate Republicans to do is to vote for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker. That outcome would also respect the wishes of the American people, more of whom voted for Democratic representatives than for Republican representatives—the makeup of the new Congress is a result of gerrymandering.

A revolt by the moderates against the crazy rightwingers in Congress would be a huge sacrifice on their part since they would form, at least for the present, only a rump of a political party, even assuming they kept their seats after the inevitable primary fights. There is a precedent, however. The Democrats did the principled thing back in the 1940s and 1950s by opting for civil rights over electoral votes. If the Democrats can put country and honor above political advantage, why can’t twenty house Republicans do the same?

Everybody, please take Jim Harrison with a grain of salt. He has an opinion on every topic, thinks he knows everything about everything and thinks he has the solution to all of the world’s problems.
The guy is what Thomas Sowell might call a self-anointed messiah. He’s also an ignorant anti-Semite.

“Country and honor” for the average republican is only useful in the sense that it provides a political vehicle to fund another spa vacation with their favorite hooker. Other than that “country and honor” may as well be the name stamped on the little blue pill they take so they can perform.

I remember one great and very patriotic senator from Massachusetts who at one time sent a personal envoy to the chief of the Soviet KGB (Mr. Andropov) offering him a joint front against the president of this country. That’s the essence of “modern Democratic party”.

Boehner might be speaker for 2 more years. After that, look for a true Republican election debacle. The Tea Party and Conservative voters Boehner has spit upon won’t be coming back for more insults. I’ll be voting for Libertarian and / or Conservative Party candidates.

If Boehner doesn’t survive it will be a shock. Republican actions and results since Obama’s 2008 victory should lead one to conclude that Republicans define conservative as squeamish and timid. Boehner’s crying was a warning sign of things to come. We’ve been illegally operating without a budget since 2009 but in two major senate races, Indiana and Missouri, we lost what should’ve been sure victories because the candidates wanted to talk about rape and abortion. We selected the godfather (Romney) of Obamacare to run against Obama and Obamacare. Mormonism cult status, birth control and gay marriage were the topics of discussion all the way up to August of last year. Our candidates quiver in fear and sign documents under duress to placate their undependable base. Republicans, like their base, prefer martyrdom over victory. http://exleftist.com/gop-stands-firm-against-gays-and-mormons-bolsheviks-seize-power/

I heard him resign a few weeks back… a Wednesday as I recall. Yah, it’s coming back to me, now; he said he didn’t want to be a Republican or uphold the liberal agenda against the leftist oath-breaking thugs, but was eager to work with and for them, instead.